Wednesday, April 9, 2014

In addition to my present writings for the National Review and freelance etc., I've joined The Telegraph's blogging team. I'm excited about writing for the UK's most widely read broadsheet newspaper. Anyway, if interested, you can find my profile page here.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

More
than anything else, it was the influence of American manufacturing that won the
20th century.

Its
revolutionary scale provided the planes, ships and tanks that helped America,
Britain, Russia and the allies to destroy Nazism and end Imperial Japan.

Facing
the Soviet Union, American manufacturing offered global citizens an informed
choice between the rot of communist authoritarianism and the opportunity of
capitalist democracy.

It
delivered the industries and machines and jobs that brought new prosperity to
billions across the planet.

But that was then.

Today,
there’s an urgent need for a new revolution of American industry – one that’s
fit for the 21st century - an energy revolution. That which can provide the foundation of America’s future prosperity and the
new shield of democratic international order.

And
let’s be clear, this is no pie in the sky delusion.

American
innovators have already marked out the road ahead of us.

In
the Shale surge, the tapping of new reserves and the development of better
supply lines, America’s energy future has never looked brighter. From the Bakken of North Dakota to Midland,
Texas; we’re finding that where investment goes in, broadly shared wealth come
out. After all, these boom-#towns offer $80,000 paychecks as the norm (*although social problems have also emerged).

For
many reasons, we desperately need to energize this budding opportunity.

Empowered,
our energy revolution would enable America’s escape from the OPEC dual-prison
of Middle Eastern theocracies and Venezuela’s necrocracy. Finally, our foreign
policy would see liberation from an addiction to cheap energy imports.

And
at home, with dynamic and diversified energy production we’d see lower costs
for individuals and businesses alike. We’d be able to expand our trade in the global
economy - barriers to entry would diminish and our commerce would increase.

More
relevant to present circumstances, as I’ve noted before, an empowered American energy industry
would also afford Europe an alternative to Gazprom blackmail. And as Russia pursues new exports to Asia, our energy exports would undercut
Putin’s strategy across the world – we could offer energy supplies at better
prices and without the baggage of threats.

These
ambitions are undoubtedly profound. Still, like a torch in the darkness, they
offer the intersection for America’s moral and strategic imperatives.

Unfortunately
however, while the bounty sits in clear view, our willingness to grasp the
evident potential is far less certain.

The
absurdity of President Obama’s Keystone
XLstandpoint
provides the obvious case in point.

But
it’s only a symptom of a larger dysfunction.

Instead
of expedited export licenses, all too often we’re getting vague undertakings
and obvious disinterest. Absent approval for new exploration, we’re getting partisan
posturing. Somehow, just as the President always finds a way to fast track new energy regulations, he never
manages to miss an opportunity to unleash America’s bubbling abundance.
Unbelievably, the President seems to preference left wing lobby groups before
national security necessities.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Updated piece is available @ The Telegraph (where I've started blogging).The search for MH370 is entering overdrive.

Following Haixun 01’s apparent ‘ping’ detections on Friday and Saturday, the Royal Navy is now sending a research vessel, HMS Echo, into the narrowing search area.

But Echo is not the only Royal Navy asset in the area.

Last Monday, HMS Tireless, a Trafalgar-class British attack submarine arrived in the southern Indian Ocean. Her mission – find MH370’s Black Box.

She’s out there right now. Lurking below the waves.

No one however, has realized why this is so significant.

Tireless isn’t just any submarine. Instead, albeit an older boat, Tireless possesses some extraordinary sensor platforms – perhaps even the 2076 sonar system (which is being introduced to the Trafalgar class complement). This explains why the UK has been so quiet about the deployment - they don’t want to attract other listening ears into the area...

And that’s because 2076 isn’t just any sonar. In fact, it’s one of the most advanced and classified programs in the British Government. Complementing integrated active-passive detection capabilities, 2076 provides highly developed imagery processors – offering sonar technicians the ability to ‘see’ what they hear. Of course, the key question is whether or not Tireless has already been fitted with 2076. And here, typifying the absent knowledge that besieges our MH370 discourse we can only estimate probabilities.

Still, the available information is compelling. For a start, we know that Tireless was homeported in February 2013 and on exercise in UK waters during June, July and September 2013. Again, it’s presumption, but it’s plausible that Tireless was fitted with 2076 and running sea-trials during this period.

More specific to the latest news, it’s noteworthy that Tireless arrived on station about two weeks following the Australian Prime Minister’s release of satellite imagery of suspected wreckage. After all, those images were far inferior to the product of US spy satellites. And let’s be clear, under the ‘five eyes’ agreements, it’s almost certain that the US would have provided better imagery to the Australians before their announcement. In turn, this strongly implies that the Australians were confident their finding was significant – they knew more than they let on.

And then there’s the specific strategic importance of HMS Echo’sarrival at the signal site. In the deep waters of the southern Indian Ocean, detection is no easy game – along with exceptional equipment, it also requires exceptional human skill. As a corollary, Echo’s arrival would allow for a classified surface to sub-surface interaction dynamic. The Royal Navy isn’t exactly keen to share its sonar capabilities with China.

Regardless, a month after MH370 went missing, this is no longer just about finding a plane. In equal measure, it’s about minimizing exposure to present and potential future adversaries. In short, the UK is looking for MH370, they just don't want us to know how.

PS - If MH370 was deliberately diverted around Indonesian airspace... it makes the concern of terrorism far greater. It will certainly raise concerns on the part of Australian intelligence over a potential 9/11 style attack.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Flowing with my latest @The National Review - I thought you might find it interesting to read some more on the Takfiri fetishism that defines ISIS. Case in point; what ISIS is doing to Iraq and Syria today, their ideological primogenitors were doing to 10th century Baghdad. Describing that era, Joel Kraemer writesabout the mobs that attacked women, destroyed musical instruments, interrogated couples and persecuted the Shi'a population. This is the legacy that sustains contemporary Salafi-Jihadism; a movement that finds joy in cooking human heads in pots, in burning prisoners alive, torturing children and using the mentally-ill to attack funerals. In turning passenger planes into chariots of death and malls into factories of mayhem. As a side note, here's why they don't like satire.

PS - I normally post a video concerning the topic of the blog post. However in this case, because ISIS related footage inevitably involves the celebration of slaughtered innocents, I'm not posting a video. What do these videos entail? Well, one I recently watched... involved a group of truckers being pulled over on a highway in western Iraq. Following an interrogation, ISIS executes the men for being Allawites. The execution scene is then replayed with accompanying jihadist music. These people are true evil.

Friday, April 4, 2014

A link page for my writings/media contributions on Russia (no particular order). I'll update this page as new pieces are published. Thanks for reading!Russia in Ukraine - link page (Many, many of my writing links on Ukraine!)